The latest rollover of the National Lottery jackpot has met a furious reaction from players who say recent changes to the rules have made it impossible to win.

Saturday’s total now stands at a record £58million, which must be won or shared out, even if no one matches all six numbers.

Angry punters took to Twitter to vent their frustration at organisers Camelot increasing the number of balls in play from 49 to 59 last October, meaning the odds of winning rose from one in 14million to one in 45million.

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The draw was made live on YouTube with the winning numbers being 8, 30, 40, 50, 54, 57 and the bonus of 13

Angry Lotto players took to Twitter to vent their frustration at recent changes to the game's rules

Most are complaining about the rise in numbers of balls from 49 to 59, increasing the jackpot odds

Some have even vowed never to play the game again due to the changes, which came in last October

It came after people missed out on buying their tickets after the Lottery website crashed last night

Lotto organisers expect this coming Saturday's draw to see record ticket sales with the biggest jackpot up for grabs since three people shared £42million in 1996.

But they urged people to buy their tickets before Saturday to avoid a late rush that crashed their website on Wednesday.

The crash left players unhappy they could not check their results, even though nobody scooped the prize.

Twitter user Phil Morley said: ‘You’ve made a farce out of the National Lottery @TNLUK, New changes are woeful, all in the name of profit.’

Another user known as ‘Linzi’ said: ‘#nationallottery is a joke and needs changing back. How can Camelot say it’s better when no one is winning! (sic)’

Anne Cawdrey, aka ‘MammaC’, added: ‘No one is ever going to win!! It’s a complete farce!', while 'daved' said: 'Goodbye National Lottery. Too much focus on having one massive winner rather than sharing it out. You ruined it. #Camelot #nationallotery.'

'Bear with us': The National Lottery website struggled to cope with the high demand in the hours leading up to the close of ticket sales, with customers reporting problems buying tickets online

The odds of winning the jackpot have risen from one in 14million to one in 45million

Rollovers used to stop after four weeks but can now continue until the total reaches a certain level

A Lottery spokesman has denied it is 'cashing in' and said 90 per cent of funds raised go to good causes

A National Lottery spokesman defended the changes and said while the odds of winning the jackpot are higher, the odds of becoming a millionaire have never been better.

He said: ‘We are in the business of making people millionaires and since October we have made 67, which is twice how many were made in the three months up to when the changes were made.

‘It’s never been about profit for us because more than 90 per cent of what we take goes to good causes. We’re happy if we raise the profile of the lottery and more people play because that means more money goes to good causes.

‘We don’t make people play; it is their choice to, and these changes were made in October so there is nothing new about them now.’

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He added their IT team was working 'flat out' to prevent a similar problem with the website occurring on Saturday, but urged players to buy their tickets as early as possible to avoid a last-minute rush.

Thewebsite crashed again after last night's draw as Lotto tickets sold at more than 200 a second in the last hour before the draw, meaning it took around £1.4million.

But the top prize of more than £50million went unclaimed and will now rise to an estimated £57.8million prize which must be won or shared out on Saturday.

The hotly-anticipated draw was made live on YouTube at 8.30pm yesterday with the winning numbers being 8, 30, 40, 50, 54, 57 and a bonus of 13.

But the website appeared to be struggling to cope with high demand in the hours leading up to the close of ticket sales, and then also went down after the result was revealed.

Earlier, the company tweeted: 'No level of preparation can guarantee against such a huge volume of players.' And a spokesman said the site was down for a 'very brief period of about ten minutes'.

He added: 'A lot of people do tend to leave buying their tickets until the last moment, but in a way it's like going into a busy shop just before closing time - you may or may not get served."

Similar: A single winner of the top prize will find themselves in the same wealth bracket as Fifty Shades of Grey author EL James

Comparison: The wealth of the winner will also be similar to that of former England footballer Michael Owen (left) or Hollywood actor Liam Neeson (right)

After 7pm, half an hour before the close of tickets, the website still had an error message saying: 'Our online services are temporarily unavailable due to exceptionally high levels of traffic to the site.'

A single winner of the top prize will find themselves in the same wealth bracket as former England footballer Michael Owen, Hollywood actor Liam Neeson or Fifty Shades of Grey author EL James.

A National Lottery spokesman said last night: ‘We now have a record breaking Lotto Jackpot up for grabs this Saturday and it has to be won this weekend no matter what.

‘If one person banks Saturday’s estimated £57.8million jackpot, they will be the biggest Lotto jackpot winner ever created in the UK.

Ticket terminal: The odds of picking six correct numbers in the draw is always one in 45million

‘If none of our players match all six numbers, then the colossal jackpot prize will be shared among the winners in the next winning prize tier, potentially creating several multi-millionaires.'

Camelot made the changes to make it harder to win the jackpot, increase the number of rollovers and so boost the top prize.

It originally put an estimate of £50.4million on last night's jackpot, however the rush to buy tickets meant it was likely to have been even higher.

On Saturday, if no-one has the six numbers then, the windfall will be shared among the winners on the next prize tier down, which covers five numbers and the bonus ball.

The odds of picking six correct numbers is always one in 45million.

If the jackpot passes to the next prize tier of five numbers plus the bonus ball, the odds of getting this combination is one in 7.5million.

At the same time as the Lotto game is posting a record jackpot, the top prize in the separate Euromillions game is predicted to be £44million on Friday night.

As a result, the UK could be looking at a lottery jackpot weekend where the top prizes add up to more than £100million.

Just as Britain is being swamped by lottery frenzy, there is a very similar picture on the other side of the Atlantic.

The jackpot in America’s Powerball lottery has reached a staggering $450million (£300million) and is also due to be won overnight.

AT A GLANCE: THE NATIONAL LOTTERY'S CHANGES SINCE OCTOBER

In October, Camelot made a series of changes to the Lotto game to 'make more millionaires'

The changes were as follows:

Increasing the number of balls in the game from 49 to 59, which officials said would help 'triple' the previous average jackpot and improve the chances of winning at least £1million.

Introducing a 'Millionaire Raffle' to guarantee at least one millionaire per draw. Entry is included with the main draw ticket, with a random code generated per line of numbers, which wins if it matches the code randomly selected on the night.

Players who match two numbers now win a lucky dip entry for a future draw, meaning the odds of winning a 'prize' are now one in 9.3.

Studies of Lotto winners show the professions with the greatest numbers of jackpot winners are in construction, administration or management.

Taxi and lorry drivers also have a good record of picking winning numbers, as well as shop assistants and chefs.

The least frequent winners appear to be bankers, politician and estate agents, although this may be because this group opts for having no publicity.

There are more Lotto millionaires with Birmingham postcodes than from anywhere else in Britain. The postcode league puts Glasgow in second place for big winners, ahead of Newcastle and Belfast.

The town with the most ‘top-tier’ winners — those who have won prizes of more than £50,000 — is Romford in North-East London.

Champagne at the ready: At the same time as the Lotto game is posting a record jackpot, the top prize in the separate Euromillions game is predicted to be £44million on Friday night

According to Camelot, the most common name for a female jackpot winner is Margaret and John for men.

The previous biggest Lotto prize ever offered was in January 1996 when a £42million jackpot was shared by three winners.

THUNDERBALL RESULTS

Last night's Thunderball numbers were 4, 8, 28, 32 and 34. The Thunderball was 9.

The biggest individual Lotto winner was Iris Jeffrey from Belfast who won £20.1 million in 2004.

A Camelot spokesman previously said: ‘The changes we made to Lotto in October promised bigger rolling jackpots and more millionaires than ever before.

‘With a record-breaking £50.4million jackpot up for grabs on Wednesday, four jackpot winners to date and 62 millionaires created so far through the raffle, the new game is clearly delivering on its promises.

‘As everyone knows, bigger jackpots mean more sales, and more sales mean more money for good causes – which is what The National Lottery is all about.’

Across the pond: A sign shows the estimated Powerball jackpot in Spring, Texas, with players in the US having a chance at the biggest lottery prize in nearly a year

Excitement in the US: A shop employee holds a Powerball lottery ticket in Richmond, Virginia. It is the largest lottery jackpot in nearly a year and the sixth-largest ever in North America

Each week, Camelot generates over £34million for National Lottery-funded projects. In total £34 billion has been raised and more than 450,000 individual grants have been made across the UK, which is the biggest programme of civic and social regeneration since the 19th century.

Excitement is somewhat dampened when you look at the odds involved

Dr John Haigh, emeritus reader in mathematics at University of Sussex

At the same time, it has far given away over £57 billion in prizes and created more than 4,000 millionaires or multi-millionaires since its launch in 1994.

Dr John Haigh, emeritus reader in mathematics at the University of Sussex, warned players not to get too excited.

‘People get excited by looking at the sum of money involved. But that excitement is somewhat dampened when you look at the odds involved,’ he said. ‘I’ve never bought a ticket and I’m not going to break my record now.’